2015 Adelaide Cup will be Main Target for Renew

Despite the confirmation that Irish import Renew would be transferred to Chris Waller’s stables following the spring racing carnival, connections have decided to leave the four-year-old gelding in the care of Archie Alexander, who took over from Marco Botti when Renew debuted in Australia last month.

Renew’s owners OTI Racing had committed to sending him to Waller’s stables in Sydney following his initial Australian campaign in the spring but decided on Tuesday morning to keep the current partnership with Alexander intact instead.

The gelding’s win in the Listed Sandown Cup (3200m) on Saturday would certainly have swayed the decision.

“Archie has done such a good job with this horse and the ownership group felt that he should continue doing so,” OTI Racing’s Terry Henderson told TVN.

“Chris (Waller) was terrific and was supportive of the decision.

“There wouldn’t have been much upside to moving the horse, Archie is already on the right track so it wasn’t a hard decision.

“We had to go through the process because the horse was committed to Chris but again, he was very good and supported our decision.”

Renew debuted in Australia on October 11 in the Group 2 Herbert Power Stakes (2400m), in which the gelding finished second last after running a wide course early. He eventually got the outside lead and despite a lot of work, just battled too late.

He didn’t fare much better in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) next time out, finishing in the bottom three after getting badly checked in the early stages of the race. He missed out on a chance at running in the Group 1 Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m) due to these two poor finishes but finished runner-up in the Victoria Plate (2800m) at Flemington on the same day. He then won the 2014 Sandown Cup on Saturday, which signals good things for a Melbourne Cup target next year, seeing as he’s already a proven winner over the two mile distance.

Henderson noted that when Renew returns in the autumn it will be the Group 2 Adelaide Cup (3200m), rather than the Group 1 Sydney Cup (3200m), that will be his likely main target.

“He will just have three light weeks, might just stay in light work and be led off the pony,” Henderson said.

“We will have a look at him and assess how he is looking but Adelaide could be an option for him.”

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